Page 35 of Justified Fear
She chuckled.“He’s too stupid.”
“What?”
“If he were involved, don’t you think he would be better at hiding his true self?This would never happen on Task Force Honolulu.”
He sighed.The new show had just started airing three weeks ago, and they were already getting comments like that.Even if the star—Jakob Wulf—had spent time with them to get his part as authentic as possible, people didn’t understand just how boring a lot of police work was.They also thought they could easily solve a crime with tools that didn’t exist in the real world.
“He could have been their useful idiot,” Ryan said.“Or he could have been pretending he wasn’t from here.Japanese isn’t an easy language to learn for Western speakers.”
Again, she was chewing on her bottom lip.“He kept saying he knew me.”Then she shook her head.“No, he knewofme.Okay, now that I think about it, that makes sense.He said he’d heard I had a YouTube channel.”
“Do you have a lot of followers?”
She nodded.“Decent size.I cook on there.I try to upload about once a week.”
“And people know you live here?”Kap asked.
“On the islands.I’m vague about which one.I always say things like ‘I’m here on Oahu,’ even though my father thinks even that is too much information.”
Ryan had to agree with her father.Social media can help many people spread the word about their business or cause, or simply connect with like-minded individuals.And he knew it had helped a lot of people get through the pandemic.As a law enforcement officer, he knew that it was a treasure trove for criminals, especially stalkers.
“KeeKee,” her father said from the door.
“Are you done throwing your weight around?”
He frowned at his daughter.She might have her mother’s golden-brown eyes, but she definitely had her father’s frown.Sadly, even that made him want her.What the hell did it say about him that he wanted a woman when she was frowning?
“I just wanted to get some information from the commander.You’re not questioning her again, are you?I would rather she have her attorney present.”
“Dad, stop.They don’t suspect me.We were discussing the bartender and what had happened before.Ray hasn’t been seen since.”
He strode over to them.“Do you think he’s the killer?”he asked Ryan.
“There was more than one killer, but it’s suspicious that he can’t be found.And he knew Keely.”
Her father’s gaze narrowed as he turned to look at his daughter.“He knew you?”
She slanted Ryan a look that made him want to apologize.Damn, the woman had the most expressive eyes.Then she turned back to her father.
“He knewofme.Let’s be honest, most people who live in Oahu ask if I’m your daughter when they hear the last name.”
“And you tell them?”
“No.”Then she wrinkled her nose, anddammit, he found that beyond cute.And sexy.With her dad standing right there!“Well, not all the time.”
“KeeKee!”
“Listen, if it’s some little auntie, a strong trade wind would knock over, then I’ll tell her.A weird white boy who didn’t know the first thing about the island, although he claimed to have lived here for ten years?Absolutely not.He just mentioned that he’d heard of my YouTube channel.”She shrugged.“That’s all.”
Grimness settled around the former NFL player like a shroud.“We’ll talk about this when we get home.”
Most people would probably shrivel when a man as big as her father loomed over them.Keely stepped closer and settled her hands on her hips.“We will not.We have a lunch date planned, and I will not disappoint those kids.Also, aren’t you meeting with Coach Adam?”
Ryan could see the indecision on her father’s face.He didn’t blame the man.It was taking all of Ryan’s willpower not to grab Keely and run away with her.There was no real proof that she was at risk, but it just didn’t feel right to let her walk around in public right now.
“Thank you, gentleman, for your help.Do you need anything else right now?”
“No, but make sure to give us a call if anything else comes back to you.”
